Here Come the Golden Knights

With the 2016-2017 NHL season well underway, the focus of hockey fans should be on their hometown/favorite squad. However, in this particular season, there is something distracting fans all over the nation. Next season there will be a league expansion (the first since 2000), and Las Vegas will have a brand new NHL franchise.

According to Naila-Jean Meyers of the New York Times, just last month the future franchise took care of one of the most important tasks on its to-do list: announcing a name and the team’s logo. After much deliberation and some backlash from outside parties, the name was finally settled as the “Golden Knights.” The logo can be seen below.

Source: The Golden Knights shared an image of their logo on Social Media

Although they are very important steps in creating a future franchise, the management team still has a long list of tasks ahead in order to prepare for their debut in the 2017-2018 season. One of those tasks, which Meyers points out, is “completing sponsorship deals, negotiating TV rights and selling a bunch of new Golden Knights gear.” This is the part of the league expansion process that has tremendous implications for all marketers in the sports industry. First of which is the opportunity to sponsor the team. Having your brands logo associated with a brand new team which is already generating tons of hype and in a market that is flooded with tourism all year round is a great opportunity.

Additionally, the marketing staff of the Golden Knights is going to be very busy for the next year trying to come up with ways to market all the new merchandise for the team along with season ticket packages, and individual game tickets. TV networks will have to duel it out for the rights to broadcast the team’s games, and since it is a brand new team, viewership will most likely be high in the first few seasons. So the potential is quite abundant for interested sponsors

It’s very evident that the arrival of this new franchise next season is creating tons of buzz around the league and amongst its fan base. So as a marketer, it would be a strategically smart move to associate one’s company with Sin City’s newest attraction.